Family Tree US Magazine

The latest issue of Family Tree US magazine is now available free online for Campaspe Library members via our subscription to Libby eMagazines. 

Inside this month's issue : 

• 5 questions with: Elizabeth Shown Mills - Citations Expert
• NARA Digitization Goal • Scanners & Affiliates to Add 500M Images
• FamilySearch Library to Retire Microfilm, CDs
• Listen Now : Podcasts on stories and DNA
• Road Map to Your Roots
• 101 Best Websites.
• Ancestry 101 • Get back to the basics of searching genealogy records at Ancestry.com.
• Find Your U.S. Ancestors
• On Exhibit • Your heirloom displays
• Come to your census : Pre-1850 US censuses
• School Records
• Preserving Cards and Board Games
• Tools for Organizing and Analyzing Research
• Y-DNA Tests
• Italian Genealogy

Week 26 (June 24-30): Family Gathering

The theme for Week 26 is 'Family Gathering', and these can be a wonderful source of information, family stories and photographs for the family historian.  For whatever the reason, birthdays, weddings, funerals or other special occasions, organising a family gathering can be a huge undertaking, especially when the family is large and widespread.

I have been fortunate to have attended a few family gatherings over the years.  Given my early interest in family history, I arrived armed with notebook and pen, ready to jot down any interesting stories or unknown facts that came to light during the event.

I also have a number of photographs in my collection from various family gatherings, some of which took place before I was born.  I have commented before that my father was one of 10 children, and that I have only one (somewhat blurry) photograph of all 10 siblings together.

The above photo was taken c1965 and show my father and his brothers and sisters gathered around their father.  And yes, second eldest Ernest (Squib) is standing with a beer bottle balanced on his head.

On my mother's side of the family, among my treasured photos are a pair dating from 1947.

Divided into the male and female sides, my mother is 5 years old and standing at the front of the group, with my grandmother Gladys on her right and grandmother Pricilla on her left.

The male group, again featuring matriarch Pricilla, has my grandfather William standing directly behind.  For many of my aunts and uncles, these are the only images I have of them, so they are precious to me indeed. 

A wonderful legacy of a family gathering.

Who Do You Think You Are Magazine

The latest issue of Who Do You Think You Are magazine is now available free online for Campaspe Library members via our subscription to Libby eMagazines.

Inside this month's issue : 

• Baptisms : 10 tips on tracing these crucial records
• Ruth Goodman : The historian and TV presenter on her new podcast
• Reader story : Was David Hough visited by his grandfather's ghost?
• Medieval ancestors : Take your family tree back hundreds of years
• Beach huts : The history of these seaside icons
• The Canadian prairies : Tracing ancestors who emigrated overseas
• And more...
  

Week 25 (June 17-23): Storyteller

While my first thought when I saw the prompt 'Storyteller' for this week's #52Ancestors challenge was of recording and verifying family stories, a recent discussion has sent my thoughts in a different direction.

Over the past few years we have seen many difficult times, and I recently had a discussion with several fellow Family Historians about how we should record our memories and reactions for the future, so that generations yet to come can see how their ancestors lived through several years of crisis.

In 2020 the world experienced a historic global pandemic, with many of us moving in and out of lockdowns and various restrictions on our daily lives.  The world struggled to limit the spread and impact of Covid-19.  Like many I was stood down from my job, saw businesses close and contacts restricted, and in the small community where I live, unforgettably saw armed police restricting travel across the state border.

While many of my memories of the pandemic restrictions, which flowed on into 2021, are stressful, there were also many positives.  So many people came together to keep each other going.  Online shopping boomed and the concept of 'click and collect' became (and remains) common.  In the genealogical community meetings and conferences went online and access to many digitised records were relaxed to make research from home easier.  The idea of working from home became much more common in many industries.

Hard on the heels of 2 years of Covid lockdowns, 2022 saw my home area suffer the worst floods in living memory.  While my home itself was not impacted, many friends saw their homes flood, roads and highways were cut, access to services cut, shops closed and like many I came under an evacuation order.  

We watched the Murray River flood parkland, the water creeping closer and closer, flooding homes and breeching levies like the one behind the library where I work - see the photo below.  As the water rose the community came together to frantically sandbag homes and businesses, another wonderful show of community spirit in the face of a crisis.

These are memories that need to be recorded as part of our family history.  We have all lived through a global pandemic and lived through or witnessed a number of historic times in recent years.  Recording our memories of such major events should be a part of our family history records, for the generations that come after us.

So please, get writing your memories. Become your own storyteller of the historic times you have just lived through.

Family Tree UK Magazine

The latest issue of Family Tree UK magazine is now available free online for Campaspe Library members via our subscription to Libby eMagazines.

Inside this month's issue : 

• News : Helen Tovey reports on news from the world of genealogy
• 10th annual Lifetime Achievement archives and history awards
• Tips from the Family Tree Plus Club meetings
• Surnames as false friends with Chris Paton
• And So To France : Gill Shaw makes a foray into the French records
• Uncover the clues and pass the stories on…
• Dreaded Institution : a history of the Workhouse
• ‘Proof’ or works of Fiction? : Vital Records
• Reuben Joynes, Weaver & Activist
• Shape up your Research Skills in 5 steps
• Making DNA work for you
• Your questions answered
• Getting started & keeping organised with Family
• Photo corner with Costume historian and photo dating expert Jayne Shrimpton
• Join the Clubs

Who Do You Think You Are Series 20

The 2024 series of hit family history TV programme Who Do You Think You Are?  will mark 20 years since the programme was first broadcast in 2004.  Once again, several celebrities will take part to learn about their family history.

Simon Young, BBC Head of History, said: “This year we have a stellar line up to mark twenty years of the nation’s favourite social history series. Time and again it proves the old adage that truth is stranger than fiction, while helping us all to understand the history of Britain and the world much better, so it’s clear why our audiences have taken this series to their hearts.

Season 20 includes :

• Melanie Chisholm, known as Mel C, rose to fame as Sporty Spice in 90s girl band the Spice Girls and has continued to have success as a singer and actor. Now, she goes from singing ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ to appearing on the show. In her episode, she will discover a political activist and the story of how her family survived the Great Famine in Ireland.
• Singer-songwriter Olly Murs was a runner-up in the sixth series of The X Factor in 2009 and has recorded hit songs including ‘Dance with Me Tonight’ and ‘Troublemaker’. He will travel to Latvia to trace his family history and discover circus performing ancestors.
• Actor Vicky McClure starred in the This Is England series and BBC crime drama Line of Duty and can currently be seen in Paramount+ TV series Insomnia. She will discover the harrowing story of her great grandfather’s experiences as a Japanese prisoner of war in the Second World War.
• Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill is a retired track and field athlete specialising in the heptathlon and 100 metre hurdles. She won the gold medal in heptathlon at the 2012 London Olympics. She will travel to Jamaica and learn about her relative’s journey from being enslaved to owning his own land.
• TV star Gemma Collins rose to fame on reality show The Only Way Is Essex before appearing on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, Celebrity Big Brother, Celebs Go Dating and Dancing on Ice. She also her own reality TV show, Gemma Collins: Diva. On Who Do You Think You Are?, she will discover whether she truly is an Essex girl.
• Paddy McGuinness is a comedian, actor, writer and TV presenter, known for presenting programmes including Take Me Out, Top Gear and A Question of Sport. He will discover the truth about his grandfather’s role in the Second World War and investigate the origins of the McGuinness surname.
• Actor Rose Ayling-Ellis is best known for playing Frankie Lewis in EastEnders and winning Strictly Come Dancing in 2021, where she appeared as the programme’s first deaf contestant. She will discover an incident in her family history which surprisingly mirrors an episode of EastEnders.

Week 24 (June 10-16): Hard Times

The theme for Week 24 is 'Hard Times', and every family has seen them, some more than others.  Early deaths, lack of work, accidents and misfortune happen in most families at some time, although for poorer families hard times certainly hit harder and more frequently.  My own family is no exception.

Just last week, in response to 'Health', I wrote about two of my great great grandfathers being committed to insane asylums late in life, likely suffering some form of dementia.  I have also written about my maternal grandfather William Pummeroy, whose father died of pneumonia when he was only a month old, leaving behind a widow and 4 young children in desperate straits.  William and his brother would eventually be surrendered to the state while their mother struggled on with their two sisters, but only after their mother had made a desperate plea for help at the local magistrate's court, where the three magistrates would grant her 10 shillings from the poor box.

Over the years of my researching, I have found a number of my ancestors, especially those who worked as agricultural labourers, at some stage found themselves facing hard times in the workhouse.  

People ended up in the workhouse for a variety of reasons, usually because they were too poor, old or ill to support themselves.  This may have resulted from a lack of work during periods of high unemployment, or someone having no family willing or able to provide care for them when they became elderly or sick.  For the working poor, saving money to support themselves in their old age was often impossible, with wages only covering the bare minimum.  For come, the dreaded workhouse was the only recourse available to them. 

Did any of your ancestors find themselves in a workhouse?  Want to know more about the conditions and how workhouses operated?  Here are a few sites for information about and records of workhouses.

• The Victorian Workhouse
• Workhouse records
• Union Workhouse
• London Workhouses
• The Changing Face of the Workhouse